Phyllis Gates, ex-wife of Rock Hudson, dies at 80

January 13, 2006|The Los Angeles Times

Phyllis Gates, the one-time talent agency secretary who married Hollywood heartthrob Rock Hudson in the 1950s and later insisted that she married him out of love and not to cover up his homosexuality, has died. She was 80.

Gates, who had a career as an interior designer after her brief marriage to Hudson, died of complications of lung cancer Jan. 4 at her home in Marina del Rey on the west side of Los Angeles, said Mark Waldman, her attorney.

"She was a lovely, very dignified woman," Waldman said Wednesday.

Born in Dawson, Minn., in 1925 and reared on a 600-acre farm, Gates had worked as a sales clerk, flight attendant and a talent agent's secretary in New York City before landing a job as a secretary for influential Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who represented Hudson, Tab Hunter, Rory Calhoun and a string of other young stars.

In October 1954, the petite Gates met the handsome Hudson for the first time when he walked into Willson's office.

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A few days later, Willson invited Gates to have drinks and dinner with him and Hudson. She did, and the next day, Hudson asked her out.

In early 1955, Gates accepted Hudson's offer to move into the rustic two-bedroom house he had bought in the hills above Sunset Boulevard. "Living with Phyllis helped normalize Rock's reputation in Hollywood," Sara Davidson wrote in the 1986 book "Rock Hudson: His Story by Rock Hudson and Sara Davidson."

At the time, Hudson's career was soaring, but he was struggling to keep his private life private -- with Willson's help.

In early November 1955, Gates accepted Hudson's surprise marriage proposal.